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AMBITIOUS KINGDOM IN NATO

AMBITIOUS KINGDOM IN NATO

By Arthur Dunn

Norway's military budget in the coming year once again increase. The Ministry of Defense announced the ambitious project of the kingdom.

In the future , the Government of Norway, the Defense Ministry plans to allocate 43,008 billion Norwegian kroner, which at today's exchange rate is about $ 7.2 billion in the current year 's military budget is equal to 7.06 billion Norwegian.

The basis of the Norwegian military policy is to participate in NATO. Military build-up of NATO , to some extent contributes directly to Norway. At present, the level of military spending per capita Norway is a leader among European NATO countries and is among the ten European countries with the largest military budgets.

Until a few decades ago at a session of the NATO Council of Norway has committed up until the early 90s to annually increase its military spending by at least 3% and still almost annually complying with its obligations , regardless of any financial crises.

The growth of the military budget of the kingdom due to the ongoing modernization of major weapons and military equipment and the financing of major arms procurement programs such as the program of acquisition of U.S. fifth-generation fighter F- 35 " Lightning 2", as well as the construction of military bases in the northern and southern parts of the country to host this military equipment.

In general, the program funding the purchase of American aircraft planned to spend more than 316 million dollars when it will be reduced by the costs of some other program. By the end of the current year expenditure for the purchase of certain types of new weapons and military equipment, and the construction of the infrastructure has been reduced to 12.6 % and amounted to about a little over $ 1.2 billion.

It should be noted that the Norwegian government strictly fulfills the decision of the management of the Alliance on the further development of the national armed forces. First of all, they are equipped with the latest models of weapons. Primary attention is given to the Air Force, which, along with military aircraft in Denmark and Germany are the basis of the combined NATO air at Nordic theater.

On the procurement of modern weapons program in 2014 , the MOE of Norway plans to spend 1.83 billion dollars, which is 25 % of the military budget. In the current year it is allocated 1.46 billion

The main priorities in the field of military construction include increased operational activity of the armed forces, increase operational readiness of troops through the acquisition of advanced weapons that meet the requirements of today's and future wars , increasing the role of the army to protect the people of the country , ensuring high living standards of servicemen and veterans aircraft maintenance cyber security and the withdrawal of Norwegian troops from Afghanistan, which should be completed by the end of next year.

Funding for military units and structures of the logistics of the Ground Forces, Air Force , Navy and Army National Guard of the kingdom under the new budget should be increased by about $ 19.7 billion These funds will be used to improve the operational readiness of the troops, which was the main direction of reform Norwegian Armed Forces in recent years. They also will be spent on measures to improve the professional skills of servicemen , the creation of a highly mobile and highly professional army, equipped with the necessary number of personnel. In addition , the kingdom plans to develop the Navy and Air Force to be equipped with the new technology and are able to fight in the modern world. It is also planned to increase spending on improving the training of the National Guard.

In the future , the Army will offer more help to the police in Northern and Southern Norway, where the constant combat duty Air Force helicopters are . It will also expand cooperation with civil and military intelligence services.

It is planned in the coming year to increase spending on national security and military cyberspace more than 3 million military experts will be more involved in all the activities carried out by government agencies in the field.

The withdrawal of the Norwegian troops from Afghanistan scheduled for December 2014 and will be held in accordance with the new concept of NATO to ensure internal stability in that country. The withdrawal will reduce military spending Norway for more than $ 53 million that will be spent on long-term measures envisaged by the plans of military construction .